Certain television channels, such as ESPN®, CNN®, and CNBC® will display sports scores and stock quotes while their program is airing. Other broadcasters will display, for example, scores from college football games while another game is being televised. However, an individual must be tuned to one of these particular channels in order to see these updates. In addition, the user has no control over how often or when this information is displayed.
It is known to provide auxiliary information within a television channel such as closed captioning and teletext information. It is also known to provide auxiliary information for electronic program guides. StarSight Telecast, Inc. (StarSight®) has a feature called StarSight® NEWS (News, Entertainment, Weather, Sports) Service which is a part of their electronic program guide. This feature allows the user to manually activate a full screen display to access news and sports stories, scores, and other information. When the StarSight® NEWS Service feature is activated by the user, it automatically blanks the video, mutes the audio, and tunes the television's tuner to the StarSight® data provider channel (e.g. PBS). The user cannot, however, watch any other channel or program while the feature is activated.
There is no system, however, that allows a user to watch one television program and monitor information pertaining to unrelated topics. There are many instances where it is desirable to receive up to the minute information that is not provided by the current program or channel. Thus, the prior art is deficient, since the user is not able to get up to the minute sports scores, news headlines, stock quotes or other information via a television or other television reception device such as a VCR, cable box, etc. (television signal device), while watching any program or channel on the television signal device.